Just few days after the decision to carve out Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, regional parties of the State like Jharkhand People’s Party (JPP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have reiterated their demand for ‘Greater Jharkhand’ merging parts of West Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarh with the existing Jharkhand. The parties are now gearing up to place their demand to the President and Prime Minister at Delhi.
“We will go to Delhi and hand over a memorandum to the President, PM and the Home Minister on August 22 demanding Greater Jharkhand as promised by the Congress party in an accord signed by it in the year 1989,” said JPP founder Surya Singh Besra. According to Besra, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had acknowledged that 40 year old Jharkhand movement was a movement for the tribal identity, it should be carved out from the tribal dominated areas of the four States- Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Chattisgarh.
“We demand from the ruling Congress and JMM that it should pass a resolution in the Assembly and send it to the centre for approval. We demand complete unified Jharkhand and the JMM Government cannot turn back to it,” Besra added. JMM leaders however, claim that the demand of Greater Jharkhand was initially raised by the party and they still stand by it. “We are of the demand that State Reorganisation Commission should be constituted and fulfill our demands,” said JMM leader Vinod Pandey. “We are in constant touch with the committees of Odisha and West Bengal, following which the movement will gain momentum,” added Panday.
Besra, on the other hand alleges JMM of forgetting the movement after involving itself in the number game. “In the meantime, Jharkhand State was announced by the then NDA Government by carving out the tribal dominated areas of Bihar and JMM like parties forgot their original demand as they got involved in the number game politics,” added Besra. ‘Greater Jharkhand’ consists of Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore districts of West Bengal, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundergarh and Sambalpur districts of Odisha and Sarguja and Raigarh districts of Chattisgarh along with present Jharkhand.
“After the violent movement led by me in 1989, a bandh of 72 hours was observed following which Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed an accord with us making a Committee on Jharkhand Matters (COJM) to look into the matter,” said Besra. The Committee was assigned to identify the tribal dominated areas on the basis of languages and geographical uniformity from the four states and prepare a proposal, Besra said. On the basis of the ethnic and cultural identity and geo-political situation of these tribal dominated districts of the different states were similar and should be merged with Jharkhand, which was accorded a separate statehood following bifurcation of Bihar in 2000.
Besra also claimed that the demand for smaller states was growing louder since the Union Government had decided to accord statehood to Telangana bifurcating Andhra Pradesh. Jharkhand Dishom Party chief Salkhan Murmu on the other hand believes that in the given circumstances, it will not be appropriate to continue with such demands. “Although, the demand of Greater Jharkhand is constitutionally right but in the given circumstances, it is not appropriate to place our demands on the backdrop of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh,” said Murmu. Murmu feels that the development of tribal people is more important than the demand of Greater Jharkhand. He however, said that he was not aversive to such demands and would not oppose any such move by the Government.